"In acquiring material wealth all are not equally blessed. But in gaining mental and spiritual wealth, every one has an equal chance. Beginning from character and disciplines and ending with supreme kindness and goodness, the wealth of the mind is displayed in abundance before all. The question is only who wants, and, to which measure !"

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PR 10 Feb 2016 - Be super conscious of the 'I'

You have to understand that the mind is also a sensory outcome. What do I mean by that? That is also because of the body. The intelligence is the brain part of the body. So, if the self is different from the body, all the activities caused on account of, in relation to the body, none of them is applicable to the self. That means it is beyond everything, beyond the range of the body and its activities and interactions, equally so beyond the mind, beyond the intelligence, beyond the ego.

Yesterday after we discussed the most important verse in Bhagavad Gita, vedāvināśinaṁ nityaṁ ya enam ajam avyayam | kathaṁ sa puruṣaḥ pārtha kaṁ ghātayati hanti kam (Bhagavad Gita 2.21), I was discussing the verse quite much. But there, the focus is on killing and getting killed. But you should not think that this statement or clarification is only related to that particular act. The general description of the self is that it is different from the body. If it is different from the body, whatever takes place and whatever is being done on account of the body, with the body, its parts, none of these activities is applicable to the self. Even the so-called mind, it is nothing but an outcome of the sensations the senses bring about. If the eyes do not see, the ears do not hear, the nose does not smell, the tongue does not taste and the skin does not touch, then what is there in the mind as its imprints, memory etc? Nothing will be there.

So, you have to understand that the mind is also a sensory outcome. What do I mean by that? That is also because of the body. The intelligence is the brain part of the body. So, if the self is different from the body, all the activities caused on account of, in relation to the body, none of them is applicable to the self. That means it is beyond everything, beyond the range of the body and its activities and interactions, equally so beyond the mind, beyond the intelligence, beyond the ego.

If you come to know that you are carrying this kind of a super dimension in you, just imagine how much of security, safeguard, confidence it can bring about! Mento-intellectually you will become a towering personality because you have got an anchor, a refuge, a kind of a source which you understand is infinitely resourceful. This infinite resourcefulness is very clearly evidenced by a number of dreams which you are having where our mind, consciousness produces every article and object, all by itself.

In the fifth chapter of Bhagavad Gita he says, even when you are active and interactive, sensorily, mentally, intellectually etc. understand that the knower of truth will have a clear realization that “naiva kinjith karomi iti.” “I am not doing anything, I am not doing anything.” It is not a feeling that he has by keeping quiet.

The next part of the verses clearly says पश्यञ्श्रृण्वन्स्पृशञ्जिघ्रन्नश्नन्गच्छन्स्वपन्श्वसन् | (Bhagavad Gita 5.8). While seeing, while thinking, while hearing, while thinking, while doing, while not doing, while all the senses and other instruments of action go on performing their respective activities, the knower will still carry the transcendental awareness, experience, realization that “नैव किञ्चित्करोमीति” Naiva kiñcit karomīti (Bhagavad Gita 5.8). It is not that you stop your activity and then say “I don’t do anything”. You have not eaten and then you say “I have not eaten”. That is what even the animals will say! You have to say after having a full meal “I have not eaten”. That is the catch point there. When will you be able to say that? You will be able to say when you are able to think of your own identity ‘I’ as something reigning beyond the senses, beyond the mind, beyond the intelligence beyond the ego.

You are now conscious of your body, of the mind, of the intelligence, of the ego. In the same manner as you are conscious of these, you will also become conscious, super conscious of the other. What is the other? The ‘I’. What does it refer to? You will be able to know. Now you know your body, your mind, your intelligence, your ego. Who is making you know it? The same faculty will make you know the other also.

Suppose I have taught you addition and the addition start with single digits. 1+1 = 2, 2+2 = 4, 3+3 = 6, but when it comes to a question of adding 5+5, it becomes two digital outcome, 9+9 = 18. Now after learning additions, suppose you say “I can only add small numbers.” But the principle of addition is the same. If I give you a figure like 9,90,999 and I add with an equal number, you must be able to add! See, addition is only one function. Once you know the addition, it is for you to train yourself to add any number to any number. But not all people have it. In the same way, differences are there in the so-called knowers of truth also. They may be able to say this in small instances, in limited life. That is where this Bhagavad Gita and Krishna excel! Krishna was able to relate and interpret this self-knowledge to that colossal situation where 4.5 million warriors were involved, about to fight and kill each other! He brought this self-knowledge to be applicable to that slaughtering scene. That is the beauty of it. I don’t know whether there is a similar instance in our history where this kind of a self-knowledge application to such a dāruṇa as we call it, most cruel, most unnerving event, and he was able to do it, Arjuna was able to absorb it.

But the simple and general statement will be that when the even senses act and interact, the mind thinks, the intelligence has its enquiry, doubt etc., the ego has its own assertion, understand that the ‘I’ that you refer to is still rising above, transcending, outliving all these things and in that level, it remains a full zero, zero, zero. I generally say, I don’t know whether you understand when I say the pith of a tree. There may be a very huge tree, its trunk may be very hard, so many branches, by-branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruits, maybe how much can I say, twenty feet diameter or hundred feet diameter, tree trunk. The whole trunk and all the parts of the tree are shaped and fed by the pith. In the pith, it is not wooden, it is not solid, it doesn’t have a color. It is different from all these things. I have not seen it while the tree is alive but I have seen it after the tree is cut. It is a powdery substance, very powdery, absolutely loose, like bran. How can this branny substance shape such a tough tree where the trunk is so hard, it is unbreakable? All of them are so compact but the pith is different from all these things. Something like that, the pith of your personality which you refer to as the ‘I’ is absolutely different from whatever you know about the body and bodily processes.

You know we have the mind, we have intelligence, we have the ego only when we are embodied. So it is all a derivative of the body but there. So in the second chapter, he says “nayam hanti na hanyate” (Bhagavad Gita 2.19). That is only here. There he says “naiva kiñcit karomīti”. I don’t do anything at all even when my eyes are seeing, my ears are hearing, my mind is thinking, my intelligence is understanding, my ego is asserting, my stomach digests food, my heart pumps blood, my lungs do respiration, even while all these activities are going on, even then I don’t do. It is not a question of just asking after having eaten, can u say “I have not eaten”? Not “I have not eaten.” I don’t. Nobody does in the ‘I’ level. As our activities taking place in the surrounding circumferential level, so exactly in the central level, no activity ever takes place. And the two are acting as mutual and complementary factors.

You know, every form of existence is a combination of two opposing forces. Every form of existence! This is the truth. I think in modern days when people know more about science, this is more easily understandable. But somehow there is a delusion and people don’t exercise their intelligence to get to know this.